Player’s Options: Halflings from 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming starts with a disclaimer that while fictional halflings drink and smoke and there are feats and flaw that relate to such in this product, the authors do not condone such behavior, which struck me as a little odd, but there you go. It then presents two variant halflings: Hidefeet, hardier stay-at-homes, and Willowbranch, adventurous and adaptable, useful for variety. A half-halfling template is provided for those odd crossbreeds, which I like in concept but the execution seems a little odd, as half-halflings, while usually larger than pure halflings, somehow are physically weaker than them, still a good idea that can be made to work. Fourteen new feats, including Frying Pan Mastery (for the combat cook) and Underfoot, allowing you to dodge between big people’s legs, provide more options for customizing halflings as do six flaws (as well as the rules for flaws). Lastly, new halfling equipment including two new sling variants, halfling staples (food, drink and pipeweed) and a few other useful things. Overall, a useful expansion for additional halfling options, if you have enough halflings in your campaign to need to expand them.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Staying true to the Player's Options-line, the pdf kicks off by providing 2 alternate versions of the halfling, the Hidefoot Halfling and the Willowbranch Halflings. The Hidefoot halflings are essentially what one would expect when thinking about LotR-halflings - they are more insular, tend to form their own communities, get + 2 Con and Dex, -2 Str, slow speed, a bonus against disease and poison, halfling luck keen senses and are sure-footed. The Willowbranch Halflings, on the other hand, don't have hair on their feet and could be considered to be a "sexy" kind of halfling that enjoy living in the cities and feel more drawn to warmer climates. They get + 2 Dex and Wis, -2 Str, get halfling luck, slow speed, a bonus against fear and an extra feat at first level. And then, there's something we've all been waiting for: A template for the halfling who fell in love with another race and wants to see what to expect from the offspring: The Half-Halfling (swallows multiple Quarterling-jokes)! The template also comes with random starting age, height and weight and aging effects-tables.

After that, we're introduced to 14 new feats and they are sometimes tongue-in-cheek - "Frying Pan Mastery" makes your Pan a deadly weapon. Second Breakfast is for the halflings who truly love eating: If you manage to catch 5 of 6 daily meals (!!! - IRL, I eat once per day...), you get your character level as temporary hit points. Cool idea! Oh and while 4Winds Fantasy Gaming does not endorse smoking (the disclaimer says so), as a passionate smoker I enjoy two of the new feats herein: One enables the halfling to take 20 on skill checks that otherwise would prohibit it after finishing his pipe and grants a bonus on knowledge.
The other lets the halfling craft smoke rings and strange images that daze all enemies that fail the ongoing contest of their will vs. your craft (smoke rings)-skill. While the latter feat would usually be considered to be op, the fact that the halfling has to invest skills and a feat and that there's a reroll each round means that I consider it balanced. It should be noted that more conventional feats make up the other part of the new content in the section, though Underfoot, which lets you move through the legs of the tall folk, even in combat, but at your peril, deserves a special mention as well as a feat on gardening and being extremely cute.
EDIT: The broken feat has been repaired.
If you're like me and enjoyed "Player's Options: Flaws", you'll be in for a treat with 6 new flaws as well as a full explanation of the underlying mechanic. From being foolish or provincial to needing enough to eat and drink and a smoking addiction, the flaws are well-crafted.

The pdf closes with two new halfling weapons, the halfling slingshot and the sling-staff as well as new mundane items like blueberry ale, tobacco, tri-flutes and pouch belts.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to a 2-column standard and the artwork, as far as I could tell, is stock and fitting. The second version of the pdf now provides bookmarks. With the once broken feat repaired, I can say that I did love and enjoy the rules-relevant takes on all the central halfling tropes that are contained herein. Thus, due to offering some very smart and unconventional powers for the halfling, I'll settle for a final verdict of 5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

Rating:

[5 of 5 Stars!]

Publisher Reply:

Thank you very much for the review, and for taking the time to amend it after we corrected the mistakes!